


Fractured Mind

by BlairFagin



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Amnesia, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Past Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-27
Updated: 2015-03-27
Packaged: 2018-03-19 21:05:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3624243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlairFagin/pseuds/BlairFagin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Trailcutter survives his near death experience, but not unscathed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fractured Mind

**Author's Note:**

> This was edited by the wonderful Prettypastelrobot. So a huge thank you to them.

“He’s awake,” the comm. line from Ratchet came in the late hours of the day shift. 

Bots stood aside watching him storm by in confusion. Megatron wasn’t one to run about the halls at a frantic sprint, well not when the ship wasn’t under attack. But their normally composed and strict captain was walking at a speed just shy of a run shoving anyone too slow to get out of the way to the side. His spark pounded inside his chassis, burning in a way it hadn’t felt in many years. He needed to get to the med bay as soon as possible, every moment he wasn’t there was a moment he spent reliving his failure. 

“Where is he?” he growled at a flustered First Aid.

“Ratchet’s moved him!” he spluttered out, pointing down the med bay. “He’s through that door in the recovery room.”

Megatron passed the beds lining the room, earning looks of contempt from the recovering patients. He didn’t care, he never did. All that mattered was that door, too far away. Why couldn’t Ratchet leave him in his bed near the front of the med bay? Was something wrong with him? Ratchet said there would be side effects, but he had never elaborated on what they could be. He knocked on the door and waited.

“You can come in,” answered Ratchet from the other side.

The doors hissed open, unlocked by Ratchet’s approval and Megatron stepped inside. The room was dimmed in an effort to curb the harsh light standard in the med bay. It took a second for his optics to adjust, but when they did he had no trouble deciphering the contents of the room. Several of the crew members sat perched on chairs and counters, somehow having avoided Ratchet’s wrath. Then again, it seemed Ratchet was more occupied with the patient sat upright in the bed.

“Now I need you retract you visor and look into the light. I need to make sure your optics are working properly.” 

“Pfft, easy,” replied Trailcutter as he retracted his visor.

Megatron froze watching as Ratchet shone the light into Trailcutter’s optics to check for their reaction. He looked fine. More than that, he looked happy, a big cheesy grin on his face.

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with your eyes. So, little victories,” grumbled Ratchet as he put his equipment away. 

“Yeah, so cheer up doc, and the rest of you can as well.”

Ratchet gave Megatron a look he didn’t recognise. What was happening?

“Trailcutter, who is this new mech?” asked Ratchet, refusing to look away from Megatron. 

Trailcutter stared at Megatron, faceplates scrunching up with his concentration. “He’s Megatron, our Captain,” Trailcutter answered, voice full of hesitation. “No wait, that can’t be right. Rodimus is our captain, we can’t have two.”

Ratchet patted Trailcutter’s shoulders. “No, don’t worry. You’re right, Megatron and Rodimus are co-captains.”

Trailcutter’s face brightened once again and he continued, filled with confidence. “I remember him, he was nice to me. He gave me a job, it was good to have something to do. He’s a good mech.”  
Megatron caught the flinches and unhappy glances that passed round the room. So those were the side effects that Ratchet had warned him about.

Trailcutter seemed oblivious and content in it. “Don’t worry guys, everything’s fine, I’m all better now. It’s like my accident never happened.”

“Exactly buddy, no reason to worry at all,” agreed Hoist, catching the optics of the others.

The message was clear, no one was to ruin Trailcutter’s joy. Everyone was to pretend that everything was normal, at least for now, and that’s what everyone did. Nautica and Skids rushed forward to sit on Trailcutter’s berth chatting away as they caught him up on everything that had taken place while he was out.

“Captain, can I have a word with you?” asked Ratchet.

Megatron nodded and the two left the room and found a quiet corner of the med bay.

“What’s the matter with him?”

“Processor damage, the permanent kind,” admitted Ratchet, his trademark glare deepening by the second. “His memories are patchy in some areas, while fine in others. There is some hope though. I’m positive that with time an effort progress can be made. His processor just needs to find and make new pathways, something that it will automatically do with new information and memories, but recovering old ones will be difficult.”

The guilt weighed down on Megatron’s conscious even heavier than before, crushing him beneath it.

“What are you going to do to help him.”

“Me? Nothing much, just keep monitoring him for now. Matters of the processor are something that Rung is more equipped to handle. I’m thinking that Trailcutter should visit him at least once a week, any more and I’m worried that he’ll grow distressed with how bad his situation is. Keeping him happy and content will prove a helpful. If there are other nastier symptoms then we will be forced to increase the frequency, but for now nothing else has surfaced.”

Words spun through Megatron’s processor, whispering damning things to him. The guilt weighed down heavier, growing by the second until his spark twinged with pain.

“By some miracle he doesn’t remember what happened to him down on that planet and apparently any part of what you played in it, unintentional as it was. So act as normal, no one is going to tell him. I don’t think he’d be able to handle it. He won’t be able to handle it for a long time.”


End file.
